Encyclopaedia Judaica
Jews in Poland 05-10: Jewish-Polish relations during the Holocaust
Anti-Semitic population - right and left political parties - exile government - Nazi German propaganda - collaboration by the Polish police - Polish help - extremization with Soviet army coming
from: Poland; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 13
presented by Michael Palomino (2008)
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<Jewish-Polish Relations During the War.
[Good relations between the anti-Semitic population and the German occupation force]
Relations between Jews and Poles in occupied Poland were complicated in nature, especially in the Polish underground movements. The entire Polish population was vehemently anti-German, but the vast majority of people were also violently anti-Semitic.
[[By collaboration the Polish population was not so anti-German any more, e.g. when there was a reward to have for cheating a Jew at the police or when there were cheap Jewish articles to buy on a market after a deportation or expulsion etc.]].
In the first month of the war, anti-Semitism seemed to have completely disappeared out of hatred for the Nazis, but it reemerged soon afterwards.
[[This indication is not right. Polish anti-Semitism was so strong in the first months that in some regions the Jews were killed in massacres without any German order, e.g. in Jedwabne. Anti-Semitism became even stronger when the population saw the profits with cheap Jewish articles, empty flats or new ground to have etc.]].
[Polish anti-Semitic political parties accept or even welcome the Nazi occupation - left parties and exile government against - deteriorating relation with the Polish exile government since 1944]
The Polish political parties' attitude to the Jews before the war generally remained much the same during the entire period of occupation. The right-wing parties, led by the Narodowa Demokracja (Endecja) officially denounced [[said no to]] Hitler's barbaric methods, but in fact remained anti-Semitic and regarded the Nazi "solution of the Jewish problem" in Poland with quiet satisfaction. The extreme right-wing radicals, the Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny (ONR) and the Falanga, rejoiced [[were glad]] over Hitlerism and approved of [[accepted]] the Nazi murders. They contended [[maintained]] that the victims were no better than murderers, and deserved their fate.
The Polish Socialist Party (PPS), on the other hand, and especially its left wing (RPPS) and the reorganized Communist Party (PPR) condemned the murder of the Jews in their illegal publications, took part in campaigns to aid Jews, and appealed to the Polish people to assist. A similar stand was taken by the Democratic Party and the People's Party, although the latter, formerly an important party, did not have a uniform approach. In general it identified itself with the stand taken by the Polish government-in-exile represented inside Poland by the Delegatura. The Delegatura also maintained contact with the Jewish National Committee and the Jewish Coordinating Commission. Through the Delegatura these Jewish bodies were able to keep in touch with Jewish political movements and organizations abroad.
Relations between the Jews and the Delegatura, initially quite friendly, deteriorated in the course of time. This was due to the Delegatura's negative attitude in regard to supplying the Jewish Fighting Organization with sufficient quantities of arms. It was not until the resistance of the Jewish Fighting Organization in Warsaw in January 1943 that the fighters at last received a small quantity of arms from the Delegatura. The strained relations with the Delegatura were partly the result of the reactionary and anti-Semitic groups' influence within the Polish underground, which grew in strength as the German front moved black toward Poland and a general anti-Soviet attitude came to the fore. (Anti-Soviet feelings among the Poles were also heightened by the story of the Katyn massacre, and the resulting break in Soviet-Polish diplomatic relations in the (col. 776)
summer of 1943).
Anti-Jewish agitation among the Polish population was also fed by the reports of the situation of the Jews in eastern Poland under the Soviet occupation, when Jews were appointed to official positions. The Delegatura also adopted a negative attitude to the Jewish partisan movement, refusing to support it or even to recognize its existence. [[...]]
[Nazi German propaganda: Jew = Communist denunciations - Polish police in "actions"]
The Nazi propaganda machine cleverly exploited the anti-Semitism existing among the Polish population. Reviving the old Polish slogan of "Zydo-Komuna" (Żydo-Komuna), they identified Jews with Communism and succeeded in further poisoning the prevailing anti-Jewish feelings among the Poles. As a result, Jews who had been in hiding on the "Aryan" side were denounced to the Nazis. In many places Poles not only assisted in the search for Jews, but joined the Nazis in torturing and killing them as well. The Polish police, with hardly any exception, took part in the "actions" and on several occasions were themselves in charge of rounding up the Jews and dispatching them to the death camps. (col. 777)
[Polish help for the Jews: Aryan documents, shelter, rescued children, financial aid]
There were, however, some social groups and individuals, from all segments of the population, who helped Jews at the risk of their own lives. The activities of the "Council for Aid to Jews" which provided "Aryan" documents and shelter in Polish houses, rescued children, and extended financial aid, helped some 50,000 Jews. There were more than a few individual Poles who had the moral strength to overcome the fear of death (the punishment for giving refuge to Jews) and the pressure exerted on them by the prevailing [[dominating]] anti-Jewish climate of opinion, to stretch out a helping hand to the persecuted Jews. Some of these Poles, along with their families, had to pay with their lives for the courage they displayed in aiding Jews. [[...]]
[[Aryan documents mostly meant also a change of name so after the war the name was not a Jewish any more]].
[Extremization with the Soviet army coming nearer - Polish national Armia Krajowa is killing Jews]
As the Soviet army drew near the Polish frontier, a rapprochement took place between the Sanacja (the ruling party of Pilsudski's successors) and the Endecja and between the Sanacja and such outright Fascist organizations as the ONR, whose military arm, the National Armed Forces (NSZ), was recognized in March 1944 as a component of the Delegatura's underground army, the Armia Krajowa. The NSZ went so far as to murder Jewish partisans and Jews who had succeeded in escaping from the slaughter taking place in the ghettos. More and more, and anti-Jewish tendency made itself felt in the official underground publications issued by the Delegatura. [[...]]
[Summary]
It may be concluded that the attitude of the Poles to the Jews was marked by both active participation in the murder of Jews and rescue efforts at great risk. The motives for these attitudes also varied from religious, humanitarian, or simply materialistic considerations, to a "biological" hatred of Jews. Of all the occupied countries, the percentage of Jews saved in Poland was the smallest, since the predominant attitude was hostile, while rescue was an exception to the rule.
[I.TR.]> (col. 777)
[[Jewish partisans who had survived until 1944 were drawn into the Russian army to fight at the front and many died by the front in the years 1944-1945. Others were more clever and organized their emigration directly from eastern Europe to the Black Sea and from there to Palestine, then eventually to the criminal racist "USA"]].
Sources
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Poland, vol. 13, col. 775-776
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Poland, vol. 13, col. 777-778
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